How to fall in love with saving money

cathybird

hi JoJoC! would love the recipe for the kiwi fruit cake - I love kiwi fruit. Yum! Yes let's get our heads together again. I want to reach my savings targets for this year.

I am off to get my hair done today and have to organise my car insurance too, so it won't be a particularly cheap day, but I will make it as MSE as I can. I have to organise breakdown insurance as well but notice some of the car insurance quotes I have got throw it in for free, so that may help.

JoJoC

Sounds like a nice day Cathy! Better than my plans for housework, which is made ten times more difficult when there's a one year old running around trying to undo all your hard work!!

Once my son is down for a nap, I'll have five minutes uninterrupted to put the recipe on. It was super tasty, especially with the lemon frosting! Yum! I want to make another one now

PenguinJim

hex2 wrote: »

I am also a book addict. The last two years of not being able to buy books have been a killer for me - books have always counted as essentials.

When I moved abroad, I started to order books online using thebookdepository.co.uk (£5-8 for a paperback, free worldwide delivery) and betterworldbooks.com (usually second-hand books, some sort of charity thing going on, and sometimes had what I wanted a bit cheaper).

About twenty books later, the weight on my wallet and my flight allowance was noticeable, so I decided to risk ordering a Kindle ereader. The latest model then was the K3 (or Kindle Keyboard), and it cost a little over £120 delivered. I was prepared to take the worse experience of using a rubbish little ereader instead of the joy of a real, paper book if it would save some money.

I maintained a spreadsheet of every book I read, using the best price I could find on the above two websites. Within nine months the Kindle had paid for itself. I was pleased, as I had expected it to take a year.

The big surprise was that reading on the Kindle was better than reading real books! :eek: One-handed reading! Slim profile! Carry many books with you in one device!

My Kindle Keyboard has continued its service for nearly four years now. I abandoned the spreadsheet long ago, and I've been reading more than I ever used to. Considering you can now get a Kindle e-ink ereader for £50-60, or a competing brand for £30, I highly recommend it.

Lomcevak

Morning all - and a truly dismal morning it is too, been pouring for hours now down here on the coast

All this talk of reading and book addiction makes me a bit jealous, I used to be an avid reader but never have time these days - with three children and a demanding job there never seems to be much time for a good book. Saying that, I'm at the end of a week off work, our holiday year ends at the end of April so it is "use it or lose it" time - kids are back at school and Mrs L has to work too, but rather than reading it has been a week spent catching up with all the things that I never have time to do during the whirlwind of my normal working week. So alongside various bits of DIY i've been giving the finances a spring-clean too, so various ISAs, FlexDirects, TSB classic plus, children's 123-Mini etc. all opened - so much bank mail turning up at the moment that the our postman is going to start to wonder what we're doing.

Having a good month on the savings front too, while less spectacular than last month (April is full of insurance, MOT, car service, school fees etc. so never a blockbuster) there is a steady flow in to the savings accounts and i'm a couple of hundred quid ahead of where I expected to be. Should hopefully hit the £10k point for 2014 next month; won't continue to be able to save at £2k a month all year, but there's a fairly steady stream of on-call payments and overtime at the moment so time to make hay etc.

JoJoC

Glad the savings are going well Lomcevak, and sorry that your time off isn't as relaxing, but sometimes it's a good feeling to tick some productive things off a list!

I'm the same as you, I used to go through a couple of books per week, but since having my little boy and going back to work, I never seem to find the time. Even when I do have time to myself, it always seems to be at the bottom of the list.

PenguinJim- I don't have a kindle myself, for reasons aforementioned. However, I know a few people who have converted to kindles and never looked back!

cathybird

hi PenguinJim, and welcome. I've got a Kindle! I love it too. I take it every day with me on the train to work, even if I've got a paper book to read too. It is an absolutely brilliant device. It does save money compared to buying paper books but I still have a tendency to buy books on it and not finish reading them because I move onto something else, and of course you can't get every book on a Kindle.

Lomcevak, fantastic news on the savings - well done. Every choice in life involves giving up things you can't do instead and I suppose reading is one of them - same with JoJoC - if you've got kids I'm surer it's harder to find the time. I read mainly going in to work on the train now, sometimes at other times if I've got a day off. I find reading necessary, in a weird way - I feel somehow "wrong" if I don't have material to read at hand.

You do sound as though you have been having a productive holiday week The dismal weather actually helps probably! I feel less inclined to go outside. Though I did get my bike back today from the shop after getting a horrible puncture and deciding to fit it with the puncture-proof tyres, so I should really take that for a nice long ride to celebrate in the next few days.

JoJoC, it's all priorities and life these days is just demanding anyway - I don't have children and can still struggle to find the time to read books! But I love having books round me to read when I get the chance.

JoJoC

Ok, just a quick post while the little man is asleep!

Kiwi fruit cake with lemon frosting

Ingredients for cake:
Oil or melted butter for greasing
175g/6oz plain white flour
2tsp baking powder
175g/6oz unsalted butter, softened
175g/6oz caster sugar
3 eggs, beaten
1tsp vanilla extract
2 kiwi fruit, peeled and chopped into 1cm dice, plus slices to decorate

Frosting:
55g/2oz cream cheese
1tbsp grated lemon rind
115g/4oz icing sugar


Method:
Preheat oven to 160deg or has mark 3

Grease and line a 1.2l loaf tin

Sift the flour and baking powder into a large bowl and add the butter, caster sugar, eggs and vanilla extract.

Beat well until smooth, then stir in half the chopped kiwi

Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin and smooth the surface with a palette knife or similar. Scatter over the remaining chopped kiwi fruit.

Bake in preheated oven for about 1 hour or until risen, firm and golden brown.

Leave to cool in tin for 10 minutes then turn out and finish cooling in a wire rack

For the frosting, beat together the cream cheese, lemon rind and icing sugar until smooth. Spread the frosting over the cake and top with kiwi slices.



If you like kiwi, you won't be disappointed! We loved it!!

Lomcevak

cathybird wrote: »

You do sound as though you have been having a productive holiday week The dismal weather actually helps probably!

I'm being so productive that i'm actually quite tired but it's good, I had a couple of weeks off late last year and got nothing done and kicked myself afterwards for just wasting the time off. I feel much better when i'm on top of things

Annoyed with the weather though, i've been painting the front of the house this week (especially the woodwork, which has really suffered this winter) and i'm halfway done but can't do anything more until the rain eases and it all dries out again

hex2

Cathybird - it has been difficult for so many people sadly. We were lucky that we had savings, assets and a plan

I too have a Kindle - it works well with insomnia and reading without waking OH up I still prefer paper books, especially as I read in the bath most nights. Big fan of Awesome Books and also the Book People.

The bank book for the new ISA has arrived so I have transferred the round £50 from the emergency fund and set up a standing order for a nominal amount. I also changed quidco to pay into that account, only a few pounds here and there but still useful.

WantToBeSE

Its boiling hot and sunny here.

Just sayin'